That’s the Salt Life Baby!

What is the salt life?
It’s a term I have been learning on my trips to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The salt life can be something you do or don’t do. Something you feel or don’t feel. Something you are or something you are not. It is a lifestyle, a way of being. And it is something I am working on.
As I sit here on the boardwalk, ocean breeze on my skin, salt on my lips, sun kissing my face, I feel the salt life trying to settle in. It wants me to embrace it. It has that effect. That pull that is so hard to resist. You don’t want to fight it, so you let it in.
The salt life wants you to relax. Get those shoulders out of your ears, close your eyes and stop furrowing your brow. Let go of your stress and all your worries. Listen to the waves crashing, the children laughing as they build magnificent castles, the squeals of delight as the chilly, salty waves push and pull you.
The salt life wants you to lie in the sun. Plan your days around the time you now deem necessary to spend on the beach. It wants you to breath deeply and savor the fragrance of the sea. It wants you to stare at the moon glistening on the water’s surface. It wants you to bury your toes in the hot sand.
The salt life will tell you that it is perfectly acceptable to spend your days in cut-off jeans and your swimsuit. Wear that big floppy hat and your glamorous shades with pride. And know that flip flop sandals are really the only footwear you require.
The salt life begs you to take a stroll on the sand. Stop and pick up shiny, oddly shaped shells. Roll up your pant legs and have a splash war on the edge of the sea. Your best meal of the day is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that you eat under an umbrella on the shoreline. Bring your sweater or a blanket and spend the evening watching the tide roll in.
The salt life seeps into every part of you. It beckons you to remain and enjoy. It is intoxicating and addictive. It is perfection.
What could be better than remaining on the coast and living the salt life forever?
But alas, we must return to the real world, at least most of us. What we can do, though, is take the salt life with us. We can keep the salt life alive, even when we are far from the sea. Relax, release, and unwind. Remember to stop and breath. Just be. Then you too, are living the salt life.